A focus on stewardship and legacy guides the Stanton Family Farms. Their management principles enhance production, protect the soil and water, and support the success of Stanton Family Farms.

Facing the economic crisis of the 1980s, Andrew Stanton chose to preserve a legacy, taking ownership of his generational family farm. His great-grandfather started the farm in 1845. The family persevered through the Great Depression by fur trapping to pay for seed. Today, Stanton Family Farms encompasses two family businesses working side by side. Andrew and wife, Judy, grow crops and cattle as Stanton Farms. Their sons, Dustin and Austin, own Stanton Brothers, an egg production business specializing in cage-free, brown eggs marketed directly to consumers.

“We use soil stewardship practices to keep our soil here. You can’t get soil back; we work to keep it in place,” said Andrew. “It’s a legacy.”

Andrew gives credit to modern agriculture technologies for enabling farmers to continually improve soil stewardship practices. Stanton Farms uses many of these tools to protect and improve their land. Seeds are drilled into the soil with minimal tillage to reduce soil disturbance and erosion. Tractors are equipped with GPS and auto-steer to ensure that fertilizer and crop protection products are applied as accurately and efficiently as possible. The Stantons are precise with their crop protection product applications, often using a drone to reduce soil compaction and save valuable time. Their combine gathers yield data as it harvests grain; that data informs the family’s decisions about next year’s cropping plan.

The Stanton family diligently ensures that their farming practices do not have a negative impact on their downstream neighbors. Stanton Farms is situated on a rolling landscape in the watersheds of several creeks and rivers that meander through suburban and urban communities of Boone County, Missouri. The Stantons implement a variety of stewardship practices to protect water quality. Grass buffer strips follow the contour of the land among their crop fields to slow water down as it crosses the farm, nearly eliminating soil erosion. All fertilizer and crop protection applications are done during times with no forecasted rainfall, so inputs stay in the field. Crop rotation and cover crops keep soil covered and in place, keeping water clean while adding organic matter to build healthy soils.

“It’s not about trying to take from the land so that we get the most out of it. It’s about what we can give to the land so that we can live here, and the next generation can as well,” said Dustin. “It’s about what I’m doing today for the next generation.”

Stanton Family Farms is a leader and example of farm sustainability and natural recycling. Grain grown by Stanton Farms provides feed year-round for the Stanton Brothers flock of 7,200 chickens that produce 500 dozen eggs daily. Manure from the chicken barn is applied across pastures and crop fields, recycling nutrients that grow lush pastures for beef cattle and grain to feed the chickens. This natural fertilizer is applied with the same strict standards that the Stantons use for their other inputs.

“Did my great-grandfather ever think we would be standing on this soil here today? I’m hoping someday my great-great-great-grandson can stand here because we protected the land,” Andrew shared.